Slovakia’s Lubos Nemec & Adrian Petruf, who came into pool play as the top-seeded team of the qualification bracket and were seeded 23rd in the 32-team main draw, produced a 2-0 (21-13, 26-24) upset of 10th-seeded Norwegians Nils Gunnar Ringoen & Even Stray Aas in Pool G. Petruf was on fire with seven kill blocks and three serving aces towards a match-high 21 points. In Friday’s pool winners’ matches, the Slovakian pair will take on seventh-seeded Eylon Elazar & Kevin Cuzmiciov of Israel, who swept their opener against Canada’s Luke de Greeff & Tynan Gannett in straight sets.
Latvia’s Ardis Bedritis & Arturs Rinkevics, seeded 19th, delivered a hard-fought 2-1 (21-15, 15-21, 15-12) upset of 14th-seeded Austrians Julian Horl & Laurenc Grossig in Pool C. Bedritis raised as many as nine kill blocks towards a match-high 23 points to lead his team to a duel with third-seeded Julian Friedli & Jonathan Jordan of Switzerland for the first place in the pool. The Swiss were also pushed to three sets in their game against 30th-seeded American qualifiers Dexter Campbell & Skyler Kaufman, but pulled off a 2-1 (21-16, 17-21, 15-8) victory. Friedli & Jordan finished the match with the exact same scoring records – three aces, one kill block and 16 successful swings each.
